Dakar
– Senegalese President Macky Sall has agreed to allow the bodies of citizens
who died of Covid-19 abroad back into the West African state, soothing
distraught families who had fought the ban.

The government banned the
repatriations in April to stem the spread of the coronavirus, leaving scores in
limbo in countries including France, Italy and the United States.

The issue was emotionally fraught
in Senegal, where family bonds are tight and many see holding a religious
burial in one’s birthplace as a matter of dignity.

A group of families with dead
relatives abroad sought to overturn the ban, but lost a Supreme Court case
earlier this month, when judges ruled that the government had followed medical
precautions.

But in a televised address on
Monday night, Sall evoked the grief of the affected families and lifted the
ban, while also loosening other anti-virus measures.

Nicolas Mendy, the son of a
Senegalese man who died of Covid-19 in Paris last month aged 71, said he had been “waiting just for this”.

Must obey health measures

Mendy had been paying 55 euros a
day to the Paris morgue holding his father’s body while the Senegalese
authorities were refusing requests to repatriate it.

“The most important thing is
that my father is buried according to his wishes,” Mendy said.

Mbaye Diagne, one of the lawyers
for the families in the Supreme Court case, said the president’s decision was a “relief for the whole diaspora”.

Families must nonetheless obey
health measures upon receiving the bodies of their loved ones, such as not
opening coffins, Diagne said.

Senegalese authorities have
recorded 1 995 coronavirus cases to date, including 19 fatalities.

As with other poor countries in
the region, there are fears that the former French colony is ill-equipped to
handle a major outbreak.

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